Seafloor under the hypothesized East Asian Sea vanished 10 million years ago as surrounding plates swallowed it up, according to new reconstructions of plate tectonics in the Philippine Sea region.
Pacific Ocean
Posted inResearch Spotlights
In the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the "Blob" Overshadows El Niño
Underwater gliders and ocean modeling reveal unexpectedly weak El Niño effects on a major West Coast current.
Posted inScience Updates
Closing the Pacific Rainfall Data Void
A new climatology tool uses satellite data to map precipitation in a data-sparse region of the Pacific Ocean.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Shift in Pacific Sea Level Trends Will Affect the West Coast
The first study on the shift toward higher sea levels in the eastern Pacific Ocean over the past 5 years indicates it will continue, leading to much higher seas on the western coasts of the Americas.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Japan's Volcanic History, Hidden Under the Sea
Scientists investigate marine tephra layers for clues to Japan's volcanic past.
Posted inScience Updates
Ocean Floor Networks Capture Low-Frequency Earthquake Event
Last August, stations on a newly deployed permanent ocean floor observation network recorded rarely seen, very low frequency signals from shallow earthquakes.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Streamlining Rapid Tsunami Forecasting
With enough sensors, traditional forecasting methods could be replaced by models continuously updated with real-time wave data.
Posted inScience Updates
What Does the Pacific Arctic's New Normal Mean for Marine Life?
Climate change has reconfigured Arctic ecosystems. A 5-year project focuses on the relationships among oceanographic conditions and the animals and other life-forms in this region.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Understanding the Distribution of Juvenile Jumbo Squid
An expanding zone of shallow, oxygen-depleted water in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean may be vertically restricting the habitat of this important source of food, according to a recent study.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Moored Ocean Buoy Tracks Marine Carbon Cycle Variations
Years of data from a North Pacific ocean station show that the ocean's ability to pull carbon out of the atmosphere is controlled by biological and physical processes that change between seasons.